July 23, 2008 |

5:30

The last day of training camp for the rookies ended with Joe Flacco as the holder for field goals and trying to run trick plays out of it. After practice Patrick Carter practiced with special teams coach Jerry Rosburg on his holding of the ball for field goals.

After practice, several of the Ravens veterans including Todd Heap, Willis McGahee, Jarrett Johnson, and others were talking with one another before they headed off to a team meeting for the first time as a full team this evening. As was expected, Terrell Suggs has not shown up at the Best Western to report for camp.

Part of the talk going into this camp is that the veterans will have to stay at the team hotel during the whole camp. For Tavares Gooden, he has been compared to Ray Lewis in several ways: they both went to Miami, they both wore #52, and now they both will be sharing a hotel room in Westminster.

Do you think he tells Ray to turn the t.v. down at night so he can go to sleep?

Remember that there is nothing here for fans or media tomorrow, so the first chance you will have to see the whole team will be at 8:45 a.m. on Friday.

2:15

Players are starting to come in quickly here as the Ravens veterans have to be in for 3 p.m. practice.

Ed Reed, Ben Grubbs, Justin Bannan, Justin Green, Antwan Barnes, Yamon Figurs, Gary Stills, and Adam Terry are just some of the veterans who have reported here to camp in the last hour.

As for the rookies, qb’s, and injured veterans, are getting ready for an afternoon practice that will start at 3:30 p.m. on the lower fields this afternoon.

More after the afternoon practice.

12:51

So the Ravens need your help. They are having a poll to help determine music that will be played during the pre game music. This week it is the rock version battle. Here are the choices for you to vote for:

As I wrote about on Monday, I did not think that Coach Harbaugh’s name would make it long on the billboard outside, and sure enough it has not. His name has been taken off of the sign out on the street.

Ben Grubbs and Jason Brown have arrived and checked into the team hotel. The vets have physicals starting this afternoon.

12:07

So far only Todd Heap has been the only veteran today seen at the team hotel. Dan Wilcox came in earlier today, but he was here when the rookies, quarterbacks and injured vets reported.

In case of inclement weather this afternoon during or before the 3:30 p.m. workout, the Ravens would likely just use the gym here at McDaniel College to get their work done.

Over 1300 fans attended practice yesterday for the first day. That is still an impressive number figuring that is was mostly rookies here. The rookies have all been very good about signing autographs after practice, although that amount of fans and number of autographs will grow greatly once the veterans are on the field with the team on Friday.

Really appreciate all the kind words and compliments from all of the readers of the blog.

10:57

So the morning session of the practice is over and here are a few of the highlights from this morning:

-Todd Heap was on the field as practices begin, but then walked off with Ozzie Newsome. Veterans do not have to report till today but Todd was here very early. Just so no one worries, Todd walked off with Ozzie just talking to him.

-Kyle Boller took the snaps with the 1st team when they did team drills as he did yesterday. Troy Smith was next followed by Joe Flacco. All of the quarterbacks had a decent day; no one had an exceptionally good or bad day.

-While doing a drill where the running back throws their shoulder into the goal post padding on a blocking drill, Allen Patrick throw his shoulder into the goal post then fell and took out some equipment. He got up and was ok.

-Ravens offensive line coach John Matsko is an intense coach to watch and was constantly in the ear of O Neil Cousins and David Hale this morning. Matsko was getting onto cousins for constant mistakes and being out of breath. For David Hale, it was much more about him getting his back side beat constantly during drills.

-Coach Harbaugh said he was looking forward to getting back to the team hotel after practice so he could be there when the “varsity” players report to camp.

-Dan Cody was kind enough to join Bob Haynie for a few minutes this morning. Dan is going to see some playing time at defensive end, and looks impressive so far. Dan is very motivated to prove that he is still a good football player and can contribute to this team. Dan’s change of roles is partly due to the fact that it was going to be an up hill battle for him to try and make the team as a backup linebacker and special team’s guy. One of the factors working against Dan is his height when it comes to special teams. Dan will get a lot of extra reps this camp with Terrell Suggs not attending camp. Dan is expected to be a guy that will be a 3rd down pass rusher.

-Coach Harbaugh had a scare as he was burned while playing corner back by Patrick Carter. A little bit later Marcus Smith turned Mark Carrier so bad when he was playing corner that Mark Carrier came out of his shoe.

7:53 a.m.

Today is the last day of the rookies, quarterbacks, and injured veterans camp here at Westminster. Throughout the day, the veterans of the Ravens will begin to report here to the Best Western in Westminster to begin the full team portion of camp. As I mentioned late last week and has been confirmed through several other sources, Terrell Suggs is not expected here today as well as Samari Rolle who has been given approval from the team to miss due to the death of his father.

Last night NFL Network ran a story on O.J. Brigance of the Ravens. If you did not get a chance to watch it on television last night, here is the video from the NFL website. O.J. is an inspirational person and makes you really think about how precious life is. Having seen and got to know O.J. over the last 3 or 4 years, he is always positive and upbeat, even now here at training camp as he comes passing by the lobby in his motorized wheelchair, he always has a smile on his face and says hello to everyone.

As of right now, the plans are still for practice to get going as planned at 8:45 a.m.